Ms. Honcharenko’s story, like her bread, has risen by way of layers of loss, resilience, and hope. Earlier than 2014, she lived in Horlivka, in Ukraine’s Donetsk area, working as a health care provider at a mine and elevating 4 youngsters along with her husband, Dmytro. Life was secure, filled with routine and love.
When the combating in Donetsk broke out that yr, the household needed to go away all the things behind and transfer to close by Toretsk, which remained beneath the management of the Ukrainian authorities.
“The primary few months, I felt fully misplaced,” she recalled. “Then I got here throughout an advert for an entrepreneurship course. It requested: ‘What are you aware greatest?’ And I instantly thought – crêpes! I used to make them on a regular basis for my household.”
© IOM/Anastasiia Rudnieva
Hanna Honcharenko runs a bakery in Dnipro in jap Ukraine,
From that reminiscence, a enterprise was born. She purchased a crêpe maker and a espresso machine and rented a tiny area. However it was baking bread that really known as to her.
“Everybody in my household baked: my mom, my grandmother, however I used to be by no means excellent at it. I failed repeatedly. Nonetheless, I saved making an attempt. I knew that someday it will work.”
It did. Right now, Ms. Honcharenko’s bakery sells greater than 20 varieties of bread.
Oven dough
In 2019, she acquired a grant from the Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM) that allowed her to buy a big oven – the guts of her enterprise. It has baked bread by way of two cities, survived shelling, and been repaired and relocated.
“When the full-scale conflict began, all I might consider was the way to get the oven out,” she stated. “Not cash, not paperwork – the oven. With out it, I wouldn’t be capable to begin over once more.”
In 2022, Ms. Honcharenko’s and her household had been compelled to maneuver once more – this time to Dnipro. They packed their belongings, their canine, oven, and started once more.
A number of weeks later, the bakery reopened.
“My son, who had by no means proven any curiosity in baking earlier than, stated: ‘I am going to bake with you.’ My daughter-in-law took over-the-counter and my husband renovated the premises. We did all the things collectively. For us, a household enterprise isn’t only a construction – it’s the guts of what we do.”
Right now, Ms. Honcharenko runs two bakeries in Dnipro – one managed by her and the opposite by her son. In 2023, IOM offered extra help to assist her buy new gear for the second location. The help allowed the household to broaden the enterprise and create extra job alternatives for different displaced folks.
Rising star
The menu consists of greater than 20 varieties of bread, cookies, croissants, nuts, cinnamon rolls, and her best-seller: the Donbas poppy seed roll, with thrice extra poppy seed than dough. “We at all times have queues for it,” she smiled. “Some recipes didn’t catch on within the new metropolis, however others turned iconic. I be taught together with my clients.”
Displaced folks had been her first clients in Dnipro.
© IOM/Anastasiia Rudnieva
The very best-selling poppy seed roll, a particular household recipe.
“I wrote on social media: ‘You’re welcome to return for tea and a chat. Simply cease by.’ And other people did. They had been scared and lonely, similar to us. We supported one another. Later, Dnipro locals began coming too.”
“I need to maintain this sense, irrespective of how a lot we develop,” she stated. “I dream of hiring households: moms and daughters, husbands and wives, siblings working facet by facet. As a result of household is a pillar of help. You may’t depend on anybody like you’ll be able to depend on your loved ones.”
Her story is only one of many. For the reason that begin of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, IOM has supported over 1,800 Ukrainian micro and small companies with grants and consultancies to assist them adapt to the challenges of a wartime economic system.
IOM says it stays dedicated to standing with entrepreneurs throughout Ukraine, serving to them rebuild, develop, and keep it up regardless of the uncertainty.
Nonetheless, uncertainty lingers. she admits that she nonetheless will get scared, particularly as assaults on Ukrainian cities proceed to have an effect on day by day life and buyer turnout.
“When it’s loud at evening, it’s quiet within the morning,” she stated. “However we open anyway. Somebody has to maintain life going.”
